"Greatest probability": Lauterbach expects hundreds of thousands of corona cases per day

Created: 2022-01-20 07:54

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach vaccinates himself against Corona here.

© Jens Büttner/dpa

The number of infections in Germany is skyrocketing.

Minister of Health Lauterbach says to Markus Lanz on ZDF that the peak is far from being reached.

Berlin – Health Minister Karl Lauterbach * expects several hundred thousand new corona infections * a day by mid-February. With a view to realistic scenarios, it can be assumed “that the wave will peak around mid-February and that we will then have to expect several hundred thousand cases a day,” said the SPD* politician on Wednesday evening (January 19, 2022) on ZDF show* "Markus Lanz"*. It is not said that the scenarios will come about, but "they have the greatest probability".

There are countries that could cope with such numbers with a view to the intensive care units, but the situation in Germany is different.

"Since we have a high number of unvaccinated among the elderly in Germany, things can turn out very differently here than in Italy, France or England, for example," said Lauterbach.

In England, for example, the number of unvaccinated people over the age of 50 is one to two percent.

"These are values ​​that we cannot reach."

Lanz (ZDF): Lauterbach calls the corona hospitalization rate “irrelevant snapshot”

In Germany, the health authorities reported more than 100,000 new infections* to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for the first time on Wednesday (01/19/2022). On Thursday (01/20/2022) the RKI reported over 133,000 infections*. So far, however, the wave triggered by the omicron variant* has not been reflected in the intensive care units. According to the medical association Divi, the number of corona patients there has fallen from around 5,000 to 2,664 since the first half of December. At the moment, comparatively few older people who are particularly susceptible to severe courses are infected.

Lauterbach said of the falling hospitalization rate that this was an "irrelevant snapshot" because the wave that is currently running in England and France is yet to come in Germany.

"I would expect the right load in the intensive care units in mid or late February, that's still a month away and then I hope it will still look good," said Lauterbach.

"That's going to be the endurance test, not what we're seeing now."

Corona topic at Lanz (ZDF): Lauterbach wants to introduce prioritization of PCR tests

In the past few weeks, the number of cases in France * has increased rapidly. On Tuesday, the country reported almost 465,000 new corona infections within one day. Most recently, the incidence value, i.e. the number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week, was 3063 nationwide. In Great Britain, too, the incidence at times exceeded the 2000 mark. However, the numbers there are now falling again.

In view of the shortage of PCR tests, Lauterbach wants to give preference to employees in sensitive healthcare facilities for laboratory evaluations.

"We will actually get such a high number of cases that we have to distribute the PCR, have to prioritize it, I will present a proposal at the weekend on how that should happen," Lauterbach announced on Wednesday evening.

According to Lauterbach, the draft resolution is to be decided on Monday (January 24, 2022) during renewed consultations between the federal and state governments.

(dpa)